Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires New Shares in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 163,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,286,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the second quarter worth about $158,728,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Qiagen by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,874,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,140,000 after purchasing an additional 141,393 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its stake in Qiagen by 24.9% during the 2nd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 1,973,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,722,000 after purchasing an additional 393,670 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Qiagen by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,812,002 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,085,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Qiagen by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,526,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,278,000 after buying an additional 50,866 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on QGEN. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $57.89 price objective (up previously from $55.79) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup lowered Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $57.89 to $52.63 in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.84.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN opened at $47.64 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.41. Qiagen N.V. has a 52-week low of $39.61 and a 52-week high of $54.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a current ratio of 2.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a PE ratio of 24.60, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.66.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.03. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 19.58%.The firm had revenue of $532.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $525.68 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Profile

Qiagen NV (NYSE: QGEN) is a global provider of sample and assay technologies designed to enable molecular testing in the fields of molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic research and pharmaceutical development. The company’s solutions span the full workflow of nucleic acid and protein analysis, offering customers standardized kits, instruments and software tools that streamline the preparation, detection and quantification of DNA, RNA and proteins.

The company’s product portfolio includes nucleic acid extraction and purification systems, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagents and instrumentation, digital PCR platforms, next-generation sequencing (NGS) library‐preparation kits and proteomics solutions.